Boxing: Sonia Lather punches her way into semis at Astana

Astana (Kazakhstan): Former Asian silver-medallist Sonia Lather (57kg) was the lone Indian boxer to make the semi-finals and assure herself of a medal at the AIBA Women’s World Championships even as four others lost their quarter-final bouts yesterday.

Sonia got the better of Poland’s Aneta Rygielska 3-0 to save India of a complete washout at an event where not one Indian qualified for Rio in the three Olympic categories of 51kg, 60kg and 75kg. The ones to bow out of contention in the non-Olympic categories were previous edition’s silver-medallist Sarjubala Devi (48kg), former junior champion Nikhat Zareen (54kg), Saweety (81kg) and Seema Poonia (+81kg).

Sonia got the mix of caution and aggression right and wore down her rival. Sonia now faces Italy’s Alessia Mesiano, who beat Russian Viktoriia Kuleshova in the quarters. Earlier, second seed Sarjubala lost to local favourite Nazym Kyzaibay.